Overcoming Succession Pitfalls with Business Transition Sherpa Laurie Barkman

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rockstar podcast. I’m excited for today’s guest. She is the business transition Sherpa. And what she does is she works with small business owners to avoid succession pitfalls and create valuable exit options. Super excited to be rocking out today with Laurie Barkman.

Hey, Tim, thanks so much for having me. Awesome. So tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by.

Laurie Barkman: One of the stories in my life is getting the green jacket for any golf fans out there. They’ll know what that looks like. That’s the, the green jacket is the ultimate prize for a golfer. And I use that analogy to describe my experience getting the CEO title. It took six months. It was tons of interviews, assessments, and it was ultimately about what do I bring to the table?

What strengths am I bringing to the table? What can I bring to the business and then fit. And it was part of a long term succession. It was a third generation, privately held company looking to, have a successful succession of one of the leadership, people and running one of the [00:01:00] divisions of this company.

And I thought I was going to work there for the next 20 years. I was really excited about it. step one was getting the job, you know, and it was a big leap for me. I had been in marketing roles throughout my whole career.

And working for different kinds of companies and this one was just a major opportunity for, for me to go from where I was VP level C suite, but. Stepping up to that CEO title was a really, really big deal for me and opened so many doors in my life, in a lot of different ways and getting that green jacket being told.

Yep, you’re the 1 and you’ve beat out all these other candidates. It was, it was a really incredible experience.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. And so, you know, along with a good note though, sometimes things don’t go as planned. I’m wondering, is there something that didn’t go as planned? If there was a big mistake that went along your journey that we can share with us?

Laurie Barkman: Yeah, and I think it’s something that a lot of companies or people can relate to. [00:02:00] If whether you’re a solo entrepreneur with one client or you’re a big company with a lot of different clients, but you have. Customer concentration risk. This is what we ran into in the company. I was with we had an excellent client, long standing relationship and it grew to the point where it was so predominant, not only in our revenue, but really our profit.

And what happened was, we didn’t get awarded the contract. It ended the relationship. And it was devastating to the business and it plays into this overall story that I’ll share today and talking about what I do and how I do it that we need to take a fresh look at where are the risks in the business and do something about it.

And customer concentration is something we can do something about in a variety of ways. And I hope that that is a message that everybody takes to heart.

Tim Melanson: What would you describe customer concentration as?

Laurie Barkman: In [00:03:00] general, I would say if a customer is more than 15 percent of your revenue, that is a little bit of a red circle, right? So 15 in and of itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but also take a look at what percent of their profits they are and what would happen to your business if they went away. That’s an indication of risk.

So 15 percent is a threshold. We’ll all talk to my clients about it. And, you know, we’ll come up with ways to mitigate that risk. in the experience that I had, it was very, very high. It was almost 80%.

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Laurie Barkman: Yeah, it was a giant red

Tim Melanson: like an

Laurie Barkman: It was a giant red flag.

Tim Melanson: Well, that’s, one of the main reasons why I wanted to become a self employed in the first place, cause I was working for a big company, they were laying people off like crazy. And I was thinking I’m in trouble laid off. I have to go find a new job. So I thought if I had multiple clients, this would be great.

that means that if I lose one, well, it’s not [00:04:00] that big of a deal. And I like how you’re saying 15 percent is like that threshold. So it means that you. have what 910 clients right in the minimum.

Laurie Barkman: Yeah, there’s all kinds of ways to look at that seesaw, right? You can mitigate concentration risk by going to get more clients, or you can put some contracts in place, or you can, do some things to try to kind of lock in the sticky ness relationship of that, of that client. But, but I think diversification is really the answer.

Tim Melanson: let’s talk a little bit about practicing and getting good at what you do and staying good at what you do So tell me do you have any you know, sort of like Routines or anything that you do regularly to keep up on your on your craft?

Laurie Barkman: Yeah, I think step one for me to recognize that I am forming my craft and I’ve been working on it now for a few years is I did get some certifications. one of the things in my origin story as the business transition Sherpa is going through a mergers and acquisitions process. And it was in that company where I was serving [00:05:00] in that executive role.

Now, I wasn’t the only executive to be part of that process. but it was a very significant event for me in my life. But also for the company was tremendous. The transaction was 1. 4 billion dollars.

It was a very, very significant event. And after that, you know, just seeing what the family did, how they’ve put their money to work for their family legacy and also for causes they care about, I think is very meaningful and also for, what the opportunity is as an, as entrepreneurs are building their business.

How can they transition with success? So I got certified eventually I left, the integrated company and a few years later, I got certified as a mergers and acquisitions advisor. So getting that certification is like MBA plus, you know, I have my MBA, but it was all these other things, law, tax, accounting, and it was working my brain in a whole other way.

And then the other thing that I did was I got certified on a software platform, which was step [00:06:00] 1 and understanding that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There’s lots of smart people who are playing in the space of, succession and exit planning, but the challenge for me was figuring out what my swim lane is.

So the baseline was, hey, how can I get smarter? How can I build a practice? So I think that was really the first two years was, you know, how do I hone the craft? there’s a lot of content out there. There’s a lot of disciplines that support the practice of succession planning, exit planning.

And when I say these words, you know, I can explain a little bit more about what they mean, but essentially to boil it down. So I’m a business transition advisor. I work with companies to help them create value. How do we create a more valuable business that one day you will let go of because every business owner is going to leave their company one day.

I wrote this book, the business transition handbook, because too many people kick the can, They kick the can down the road. They don’t work on it. And then when they think they’re going to exit for a [00:07:00] certain number. They’re, they’re shocked and surprised that it doesn’t happen. nobody wants to be told their baby’s ugly, right?

So if we can start early in the process, make a difference, that’s, that’s really my mission now. How can I guide entrepreneurs to create life changing succession stories? And succession stories is the name of my podcast. So another way that I’ve honed my craft is listening to these stories. They’re amazing, right?

what went right? What went wrong? The high notes, the bad notes. And, I’m a sponge for those stories. A lot of them are plugged into my book as well as my own experiences and, anonymous client work. But all of that shapes sort of this body of knowledge, body of experience, body of work.

And I’m using that and I’m building from that every single year.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, it’s interesting timing. I was on a podcast yesterday. one of the major things that I talked about was an exit [00:08:00] strategy for your business and trying to build the company from the beginning with that end in mind, because I do find that there has been quite a few guests on the show that have Been a little blindsided by that for whatever reason.

Like, I mean, it could be sort of like even just a disagreement between partners and now they’ve got to figure out what they’re going to do with it. But I’ve always thought that that was quite clever to try to figure out, you know, if I was building this from the start to sell it, what would I do differently, right?

Then having it, building it right from the start, you know, just as my own baby and doing whatever I want. If, you know, I think that you would probably put in place probably better standard. Operating procedures, you’d probably sort of build it in a way that it was really easy to hand off to somebody, which would probably make your business run more smoothly, wouldn’t it?

Laurie Barkman: Yeah, it’s like you read my book. Yes, absolutely. Everything you said. Check, check, check, check. Absolutely. so many [00:09:00] tech startups begin with the end in mind, right? They’re raising money from venture capitalists who are asking them. We’re going to sell your company to. And one of the things I like to talk about is why is that question only reserved for venture backed companies?

Why isn’t that the everyday entrepreneur? Why isn’t it that, you know, family led companies are thinking about their transition or not everyone’s going to sell to a third party, but every, everyone’s going to have some sort of, ownership succession or leadership succession, right? It doesn’t have to be the same person.

Yeah, I think what’s critical on your question is, well, what can we do about it? I have assessments that measure a baseline for where a business is today on 8 different dimensions. And you hit on a few of them for sure. And what’s really cool is, if it’s a well established company, and it has financials for the last 3 years, they can enter in that data and get a estimate of value, which is really cool, right?

It’s good to know what your businesses work because shockingly. It’s probably not worth what you think it is. And also, if [00:10:00] we can begin with the end in mind, I like those words. Those are the words to describe the, the masterclass that I’ve put together called End Game Entrepreneurship. And that’s exactly what I say, build with the end in mind, and it’s an encouragement for, I’ll call it the age and life stage of the entrepreneur, whether you’re a.

newpreneur or you’re in a mature business. Look, everybody asks you, Laurie when should I start this? The answer is yesterday. this is an encouragement to learn what you don’t know. Take a fresh look at your business for risk. One of the risks we talked about already, right?

Concentration risk of revenue, but you’ve pointed out a few more. What can we do to Reduce the risk of owner dependency, delegation, documentation, things of that nature, having a team around you. And it doesn’t mean they have to be a W2 and I, you know, it’s something we can talk about of how do you build a team?

That’s not all W2 people. I think step 1 is you gotta look at your business from the eyes of the buyer. [00:11:00] You gotta have a different lens, you know, we see everything with rosy glasses, like, everything’s fine, you know, but then when someone like me comes along and says, well, what about this?

What about that? Here’s some data around it. It takes, the subjectivity out, which I think is really valuable because we can also do some modeling around what could it be worth if we improved, these 3 variables, including financial performance and other things and for digital businesses, there’s all kinds of opportunity on the upside.

so I’m not sure how many listeners have a digital business, but, professional technical services, B to B. I mean, you name it the process is there to recognize where the opportunities are and how to take action.

Yeah, and. I would think that maybe that’s actually, I’ll ask you, what do you think would be a drawback of, taking this kind of approach to building your business from the start? because the reality is, is just like [00:12:00] any strategy. You can change your strategy. I think it’s very powerful. it gives you a different way to look at your business. Are you a business owner or the owner of the business? And one of them is a little more arm’s length than the other.

If you can think about that, right? I own a business versus I’m a business owner and owning a business is a little more arm’s length. You might own several businesses. You might not be working in them and operating them day to day. There’s a lot of people who want a lifestyle business and that’s great.

There’s nothing wrong with that. And the reality is those lifestyle businesses most likely won’t transition to a new owner. But if you’re thinking about building a company that someone else might want to own after you, why isn’t it worth thinking about this opportunity and potential if you’re striving to hit 100, 000 in revenue, great, but most likely you’re going to max out at 100, 000.

If you’re thinking, well, I’m 100, 000 today. And if I can get to 2, 000, 000 in revenue, I might be more attractive to this or that type of buyer. [00:13:00] Isn’t that interesting? We can then do what I call reverse engineering your exit. We look forward to look backward and it helps us pinpoint the road map.

For some companies, it’s growth organically. For other companies, it’s growth through acquisition. There’s all kinds of things that we can do to be more attractive, transferable, and have less risk so that we can generate more value.

And at the end of the day, you know, get the return that you’ve worked so hard for.

would say probably the biggest drawback would be now, you might not be happy with the fact that maybe your business isn’t a generational business, right? But, That’s true. I guess I don’t look at it that way. You’re right though. People could be disappointed and then say, that’s it. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and let it ride.

Tim Melanson: Like, I think knowing that this is a lifestyle business, this is something that I’m just gonna, it’s gonna die with me versus, you know, maybe that might be the catalyst to make you go like, well, maybe I [00:14:00] don’t want it to die with me. Maybe I do want to pass it off to somebody else later on.

Laurie Barkman: And then all of a sudden now you’re starting to think about things totally differently. So I think it’s definitely worth it for everybody to look at, you know, even if it isn’t something you want to move forward with, Yeah, I had a really short conversation with someone the other day. I was at the airport and a friend of a friend said, Hey, can he talk to you real quick? I was like, okay. And we jump on the phone and he describes his business and. I asked him a bunch of questions and then I said, look, honestly, I don’t think there’s a there there.

I look for pattern matching and there’s enough red flags. And what he told me that I said, I really don’t think that there’s something attractive and transferable and doesn’t have balanced risk and value.

And he was like, okay, then I’m not going to pursue it. And I was like, well, you can get another opinion. And he goes, no, I understand what you’re saying. It sort of validates what I was thinking. And I think people probably know them deep down They do.

Tim Melanson: So we talked a little bit about the band, I guess, about people like delegating and all that stuff. So I’m wondering what, what can you tell us about [00:15:00] that, about, you know, putting yourself around the right people?

Laurie Barkman: Yeah, I mean, I am a fan of peacocking your company, meaning even if you’re a solopreneur and you’re one person, if you have people that are helping you do something, absolutely count them as part of your team as part of this sense of making the effort look larger because it is larger, right? It isn’t just you.

I got that question a lot. Oh, is it just you? And I say, no, it isn’t. A friend of mine had encouraged me to put together an org chart. And in that process of putting together an org chart, I realized, holy crap.

I have a lot of people on my team that are doing different things. I’m getting to the point where I have some overlap and I need to do some streamlining, but that’s a good problem to have. and the way I went about the org chart was kind of like two parts. One was client service related. So, it’s more external and then 1 was more like back office, right?

So, what are, what’s my, what’s my tech stack? [00:16:00] It’s not people, but it’s the tech stack and then I might have people using that tech stack. So, I was thinking about that marketing admin. So, example on the admin, I have an attorney, right? I have a tax advisor. So those would be people that would be quote unquote on your team.

but then I have people on the marketing side and they’re handling very specific things. I also have a virtual assistant and I kind of mapped out, also the other thing I did on a separate page was I mapped out partners. Now a partner is up for definition from everybody. Okay. I’ll just. Share how I define it.

in my world, a partner means maybe literally a referral partner. Well, we have signed referral agreements with one another. And so I have a list of those people. So I know that they could be a source of business. Another list of people say, no, I don’t need any compensation. I just want to have a good Rolodex of people that I can refer to.

And I ask the same, so there’s no formal, but I kind of have that [00:17:00] organized by. Area of service, you know, so, for example, like M and a attorneys or M and a tax advisors or, insurance brokers, right? Things that I do not do. We are not in each other’s swim lane, but we’re very complimentary. for an acronym, I call those centers of influence.

So, I have kind of that center of influence list and then other things, but together. It’s a very interesting, way to think about your team.

Tim Melanson: Absolutely. I love it. I love that you’ve got all these partners that you’ve put into the right categories as well. And it is interesting that when you really take a step back, even if you’re a solopreneur, you gotta have, there is somebody in your team, That you’re relying on for some stuff.

Now, how do you go about finding these people?

Laurie Barkman: They varied, you know, when I was just out of the gates as a newpreneur, I should share with you, you know, when I finally opened my shingle, I was in my fifties. So I had [00:18:00] 50 years of working in both startups and Corporate enterprises and everything in between and my vocation in those years, not the CEO years.

That was I was obviously a leader, but everything before that. in my career of 30 years or so. 25, whatever is, was in marketing. So, I’ve been very comfortable. Marketing something, right? Jeans, education, whatever it is. Now the tables were turned. I had to market myself. But the good news is that I’ve also been very comfortable and curious about these tools.

And I’m pretty hands on, so was it perfect out of the gates? No, but it enabled me to put together my tech stack and put together my marketing stack in a way that I was like, okay, I can figure this out. So then when I needed graphics, I went to, People might be familiar with with Fiverr and some of those freelance sites.

so I went to a couple of freelance sites when I launched my podcast. I had some help with some graphics from [00:19:00] there and also, for sound engineering with my podcast, A wonderful sound engineer from, from these freelance networks. So that was sort of the getting started mode was I’d identified.

Where I knew I didn’t really have a skill set and I wanted some augmentation and, those were really easy. You know, you just kind of create a little job description and then you can, depending on, on the freelancer, you can interview them or whatever. And it’s pretty low risk. So that was really, really helpful.

so I think that’s 1 that’s 1 way.

Tim Melanson: Now, how about fans to your business? So, I mean, we live in a world now where, social media is huge. There’s lots of ways that you can reach people, but how do you get them to really love you?

Laurie Barkman: I’ve tried to be as authentic as I can, and I’ve tried to provide value, you know, there’s no fee to listen to my show. You can listen to any episode and get value. That’s kind of the ethos that I have. It’s not timestamped, you know, even recording during COVID was tricky because I didn’t want it to [00:20:00] be like all shows from the past that nobody would ever listen to again.

and so for me, it’s kind of this, philosophy that I’m going to put good in the world, and that good will come back. I knew it wasn’t going to necessarily be immediate. I think it’s taken a good three years for that to happen. And the goodness is starting to really roll in in a way that I’m so excited about, whether it’s from people that want to help me grow my business and take it to the next level.

I’m essentially building a content platform. So when I think about marketing, You know, I have to encourage myself to also think about sales because I’m just naturally tending to do the marketing side and I have to get better at the sales side, but I think the authenticity is 1 part of your question.

You know, how do people want to work with me and building trust? You know, I’m talking about something that could be millions and millions of dollars. For them in an exit, it’s a significant, transaction and it’s probably the only one they’re going to do in their life. And it’s highly emotional, right?

To let go of quote, unquote, your baby. [00:21:00] So, my appreciation is sort of this I. Q. and E. Q. and the topics that I. Talk about and share and educate around. It’s not just like the Laurie show. You know, I have, I, I barely do solo cast. I probably should do more. but that’s a big reason why I wrote the book is I’m trying to get this knowledge into people’s hands and broaden it.

Can I reach a million people? Can I help a million business owners create intergenerational? value, The book is one way, the podcast, and I’m launching a course. and I think that that’s another way that people can interact with the content, make it their own, and then maybe want to work with me and my expanding team of advisors and maybe even that they want to sell their business.

And so it’s this combination of trust, credibility, and value. and doing it in a way where I’m trying to meet them where they are.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Isn’t it [00:22:00] like such a crazy world we live in now where we can sort of even compete with the big boys, right. You know, in terms of, putting content out there. I like that you mentioned the realistic side of it, though, because it does take time to build that, right? It’s not like, oh, you know, I’m just putting out a podcast and expecting that it’s going to generate sales in the next month or so.

it really does take quite a bit of time for it to really catch on, right?

Laurie Barkman: It does. And I, I’m not usually a patient person, but I think one of the key things I’ve learned along the way being an entrepreneur is to be more patient. in the big picture of what I’m trying to do, you know, I was using the example earlier, like if you think your business is here and you want to be here, I’ve been challenging myself to.

Think bigger and That’s new for me. I was sort of thinking this is a lifestyle thing And now when I tell people about what I’m working on and I say people I’ll say strategic consultants when I talk to friends and colleagues that are strategic consultants [00:23:00] not in my space But appreciative of what I’m trying to do They’re like, oh my god, Laurie You are on to something huge This could be huge and they’re trying to help me think about well, what could this be? So I won’t go into any detail right now, but I’ll just say like, am I creating a scalable content platform? And that’s like very, very exciting.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. I love it. And, I mean, I think that we learn in sales that people do business with people that they know, like, and trust, right? And, you know, in the past, you had to take out, TV ads, or you had to know people who know people and get introduced directly. But now, like you say, you can become somebody that people know, like, and trust just by putting out that regular content and being consistent with it, right?

Laurie Barkman: Yeah, absolutely.

Tim Melanson: So it’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business.

Laurie Barkman: I’m super excited about this course. I’ve been working on it for the last six months and little fun fact. my daughter was working on it with me. She had graduated from college and had, about six months of time before she started her new [00:24:00] job. it was really cool to work with her. I’m also working with others on the team.

So anyway, it’s a team effort. this course is called end game entrepreneurship. it’s a master class. There’s 3 core courses to it. That really builds off the book and I’m just so proud of it because. I tested course 1 with a few people just to kind of eat my own dog food, do a beta test and they said, absolutely, there’s value here.

And that was just course 1. There’s tools, there’s interactive tools. So you can read the book and get a lot of these concepts, but then you got to figure out the tools on your own. Here, I’m literally giving you the tools as well. the accountability comes next, which is something that I’m envisioning with the community of people who have taken the course, which is the end game entrepreneurship mastermind.

I’m really excited about that too, because podcasting is great, but it’s very one way. I don’t know, literally who’s listening to the show. this is a potential to kind of bring it all together, right? If people learned about, The course from online from the show or however, then we can [00:25:00] add value to each other.

So this is a really big opportunity. Catapulting what I do from a 1 to 1 to a 1 to many. from a services perspective, meaning, I look at my return on time, right? I don’t charge by the hour. It’s kind of a value based, thing of what I do selling businesses and so on, right?

Success oriented. So there’s a lot of potential there, but there’s also The times when the business doesn’t sell, right? So it’s kind of be feast or famine However, if I can take this idea and say, I’ve got a recurring revenue business or I’ve got a content monetization model, isn’t that interesting, right?

And that I can be earning money while I’m sleeping and that premise is super exciting and it’s going to be hard and I got to figure it out, but that’s, that’s what I’m excited about this new, interesting entrepreneurial potential. I am my own startup again.

Tim Melanson: Awesome, you get to do it with a little bit more experience under your belt, right?

Laurie Barkman: Yeah. [00:26:00] absolutely.

Tim Melanson: That’s amazing. So tell me what is a Sherpa?

Laurie Barkman: A Sherpa is somebody who takes you as a guide on your journey. And I’ve used Sherpas and guides and hiking, right? We can think of that kind of metaphor. And I think it applies well to the sense of movement. I use the word transition a lot. And that’s on purpose because transition is a movement.

Right from here to there, We’re setting that direction and the Sherpa is a guide. They’re not going to tell you what to do, but they’re going to say, hey, what about this way? I think that that’s an important thing for business owners. A lot of times they want to figure it out on their own, but at the same time, they kind of want to know that someone’s in front of them paving the way saying, yeah, this way, you know, and, try these frameworks, try these things.

Here’s what’s worked for others. Here’s things to avoid. And that was the premise of the book, right? The business transition handbook, how to create valuable exit options, how to avoid succession pitfalls. Lots of people have been through this [00:27:00] process and lots of people have stepped on landmines. So my role as a Sherpa is to try to help you avoid some of those landmines and help you ultimately be happy in your exit and not, have, exit regrets.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Yeah. And you know, there’s so many different types of courses and materials that you can learn from out there. And really one of the things that is missing from a lot of it is that guide and is that sort of community you mentioned that you’ve got some accountability going on there because, you know, just, I mean, I don’t know how many times I’ve downloaded a course and just didn’t get to it. So having somebody sort of guide you through it because oftentimes it’s, it’s, You know, it’s not the same thing to, to read something and then to apply it every situation is somewhat different. So you might need a little bit of that guidance of going, okay, this is how you apply this particular thing to your situation.

Right?

Laurie Barkman: Right. I agree with that.

Tim Melanson: So how do we find out more about you

Laurie Barkman: Have you ever heard of Linktree?

Tim Melanson: [00:28:00] Yes.

Laurie Barkman: Yeah, so I have a Linktree. you type in linktree, slash business transition Sherpa. You can get all my goodies. some of the links on there include my website, which is the business transition Sherpa.

com. if you go to my site, I’ve got a couple of things for you that are complimentary. One is you can download a free ebook. from my website of my book, and it’s a gift for listeners. I appreciate you listening and you can go ahead and download that.

You can, of course, join the newsletter. But the other thing I want to come back to is that assessment. if you’re listening and your business is. over 2 million in revenue. This assessment might be interesting for you If you’re under a million, that’s okay, too.

But I think it’s something to use on your journey and try to understand what some of these dynamics are as you grow. some of those tools are there and the course information is also there. So those are some goodies for people.

I love free stuff. Or you can get my book on Amazon.

Tim Melanson: what’s the name of your book?

Laurie Barkman: [00:29:00] The Business Transition Handbook.

Awesome. Yes, you can.

Tim Melanson: thank you so much, Laurie for rocking out with me today. This has been a lot of fun.

Hey, thanks, Tim. Awesome. To the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment, and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.